I only lost things not people.

I was in Corlette St getting ready to go to the beach in my shorts and bikini top when the world started shaking. 

I thought it must have been mine subsidence but then I heard smashing sounds. 

I walked to my shop and was confronted by the sight of the  destruction.

Tikat was one of Newcastle’s first commercial access galleries. I had a lot of work from artists and craftspeople on consignment in the shop as well as all my own prints under the rubble.

Luckily, it was insured.

The newspaper reported that I was sitting in the gutter in tears waiting for my landlord but they didn’t report that I had a glass of scotch in my hand trying to cope with the shock. 

Our house wasn’t damaged so it became a warehouse storing not only all the artworks from the shop but also helping out our friends.

I was lucky. I only lost things not people but Newcastle felt very surreal with army on the streets and checkpoints in place but there was a huge sense of camaraderie in Cooks Hill.

We rebuilt the business in a new location using insurance and relief funds but it was the beginning of the end for us. 

I moved to Sydney a few years later.

Tikat and the earthquake taught me many of the skills I now use to be an art gallery director at Lake Macquarie. 

Debbie Abraham 

Then 29 year old Tikat Designs owner, Cooks Hill